Two Sides to a Coin

(This is something that we wrote for a website called And Now for the Good News.com)


On the first day of class, a graduate student from Xian’s Jiaotong University reminded me that, especially in China, “there are always two sides to a coin.” Experiencing China’s May 12 earthquake while living in the Xi’an with our two daughters, we have indeed seen both sides of what is beginning to be called China’s 5 12 disaster coin.

When the earthquake happened, we quickly compared it to our natural disaster reference point - Hurricane Katrina, but within a day we realized that disaster and the Chinese response was quite unlike anything that we had seen in the U.S. On television, in newspapers and through the internet, we’ve learned about the extent of the destruction, and the statistics are horrific - as of this writing, over 69,000 confirmed dead, some 20,000 still missing, over 350,000 injured and more than 15 million displaced. Given that more than one-third of the country’s population lives on about two dollars a day, responding to this level of death and destruction might seem daunting, if not impossible.

Evidently not for China and certainly not for Chinese people, who have cultivated a way of life based on overcoming the challenges they have faced over their long history. While not diminishing the human suffered stemming from this epic disaster, we have been impressed by the response of key sectors of the Chinese nation; namely, the central government, the growing non-governmental organization (NGO) sector, and, most of all, the Chinese public, all are confronting this challenge with an admirable sense of purpose and unity.

We are sure that western newspapers have covered the destruction in great detail. Hopefully, they have complimented the Chinese government for its rapid, serious response. But the underlying story of the triumph of human character is, as always, more difficult to capture. The story behind the statistics is the impact that this event has had on galvanizing the “Chinese street,” where concern and resolve are palpable. While people are transfixed by images from the disaster area that are broadcast on a variety of media, there seems to be little desperation or hopelessness. Instead, there is a “roll up the sleeves and get to work” determination, and surprisingly, deep gratitude at the outpouring of outside support.

When we turn off the television and discuss what we as a family have learned from the events of the last two weeks, we find ourselves marveling at how the Chinese are confidently if quietly dealing with this unprecedented tragedy – a disaster that continues with every aftershock, mudslide and potential flood.

It seems like every school, organization and business is raising money for Sichuan, and young people all over the country are out in the streets looking for donations or giving blood at the many mobile blood vans that are out in full force. Those who cannot give, like the 75 year old woman from Sichuan, are volunteering or giving in other ways. A tear-evoking example is in the Sichuan policewoman with a newborn child who was nursing multiple infants whose mothers were either killed in the quake or too traumatized to care for their children. The deeply felt national concern over the fate of affected children has been moving. On 22 May, there were 1,697 orphans, but just a day later, the number dropped to 494; and rest assured, despite the country’s developing status, there are more people willing to adopt than there are orphans from Sichuan.

And then there are the heartbreaking, but inspiring stories told by people who have lost the most; a man who lost his wife and daughter but thanked everyone who has helped him deal with his loss; or parents who wrote in the local paper that as sad as they are that their only son was lost, they are grateful that one of his teachers was so devoted to her class that she ran back into the school to save more children. The teacher was found pinned underneath the school holding two of her students. Or, the parents who responded to the death of their only child by expressing gratitude for he six years of joy that they had with him.

Although parents and the country as a whole mourn their losses, life goes on in China at its normal breakneck pace. Children in Sichuan are back in school and high school graduates are taking their college entrance exams in tents. Relief efforts are already transitioning to reconstruction and within a week, there will be temporary shelter for between 50,000-100,000 people. The central government has promised that within three months there will be temporary houses for at least 1 million people. Factories throughout China have been working 24-7 to ensure that food and shelter are provided for the victims. Over 100,000 thousand people in uniform remain deployed throughout the region to move boulders, clear clogged lakes and carry in food, water and other emergency supplies, despite the instability caused by aftershocks and flooding in the region.

On the international front, the government’s openness to this scale of this disaster resulted in an unprecedented outpouring of aid, with relief assistance coming from more than 40 countries. China’s 5 12 has also helped bring Taiwan and China closer than they have ever been, with China’s President noting how moved he was by the “brotherly love and care” shown by the Taiwanese. Similarly, relief efforts have also created an opportunity for China and Japan to reexamine their age old conflicts.

Domestically, the earthquake may also prove to be a watershed event for the Chinese government, which has displayed remarkable openness and honesty concerning the events, the extent of devastation and the difficulties ahead. It has also opened the door to cooperation between the government and non-governmental relief and aid organizations. China has long hoped to develop this sector more fully and the scope of this disaster seems to have provided the stimulus the government needed to more fully engage this group. If a more robust NGO sector is an eventual outcome of this tragedy, it is quite likely that it will lead to a higher quality of life for all Chinese and even more international engagement.

So, while no country or person ever welcomes tragedy, especially something of this magnitude, the earthquake has taught us a great deal about China’s true character and its people’s resilience. It has also reminded us that the other side of even a dark coin may hold the promise of a brighter future.

Patrice McMahon is a Visiting Professor at Jiaotong University in Xi’an, China. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Nebraska.

Jeff Cole is the Associate Vice President of the School-Community Partnerships at the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation

Sha mo continued

THe scenery was amazing a series of dunes that were golden and desert stretching as far as you could see, our shadows were sort of pretty, as the shadows of a camel are not pretty but sort of cool.

After two hours of riding we stopped and ran up hills dragging the sled with us, it was fun riding down but not fun coming up so after two rides a piece, we collapsed on the sand and continued riding, after another hour the heat came leaving us gasping and forcing me to tie a scarf on my head, and put on sun glasses, we stopped for lunch, feastingon fruit and vegtables before sledding and building a small civilization to the Spade Goddess, praying for a good hand in our next game of spades. CLimbing back upon the camels we continued again.

ANd that is where I will start tomarrow.
Hana

"Sha mo" Desert

We certainly saw the desert.

WE traveled North west into a small town by the name of Zhongwei, arriving in a town with a half a million people, able to view from our window the golden fingers of sand sneaking into the horizon and into the village.



Our first day in Zhongwei we visited a daoist and buddist temple, where we later joked the monks were trying to fatten us up, for as soon as they saw us they threw us fruits that were supposed to be offerings to the gods. Julia got into the act by feeding the pigeons in the park in front of the temple.



IN a while we found out why, because upon entering the daoist versioin of a haunted house which had also once been a bomb shelter we walked along in the dark, feeling along the rough stone, in complete darkness, and then suddenly a motion activated light would flicker on black lights and light up errie albiet gruesome daoist statues of people cutting up other peoples tongues, and it didn't help that everyone took this chance to try and frighten each other as much as possible, by hiding at every turn jumping out unexpectantly. WE joked that the monks were planning to lock us in to haunted house and that was why they had given us so much food, and when we saw the open door were relieved. Once outside we were able to enjoy a common "ride" here in China - a plastic bubble that allows you to run on the water.



The next day we woke early and traveled to the desert, after stopping at the remains of the Great Wall which now looked like a hill, we rode on to the desert, here we mounted our faithful steeds, this time which were camels.




At first it took a while to adjust to the odd swaying motion of the camels which could not be described as comfortable, though we were on lots of packs and blankets however after around an hour of riding like this we got used to suddenly being thrown into the air and back down again as a normal routine. Then were able to enjoy the desert. We had ridden for 20 minutes through a grassland before riding across a highway and into what we viewed as a desert. We were an odd group, the five camels were hooked together by their noses, the loop going through there noses not alonging them to stray far, we tried not to look at it too much because when we looked at it we screamed "Ow"!In our head.
Sorry-dinner I will finish in a second

Are Chinese really New Yorkers on steriods?

I returned to Beijing the other day to do some research and realized, as a I was waiting for a cab...for over an hour...I started thinking that Chinese are really New Yorkers on steroids. But they really aren't because no one ever loses their temper here...it is amazing.

New York city is not really like Beijing...New York seems small by comparison..perhaps it is because I know New York better? But it is hard to imagine the density here, particularly in Beijing and especially at the train station's taxi stop on rush hour. But imagine if you will several thousand people mulling around a taxi line that winds itself around in three different ways and as the taxis drive up, so do other kinds of vehicles, people on bikes and plenty of pedestrians...in a tiny two lane road.

It is totally insane..but as pushy as everyone is, no one loses their temper and smiling is the general rule. God only knows what they are saying to each other, as they roll their suitcases over each other's toes and push ahead of each other in line, but still no one loses their cool. It just doesn't happen in China. And after all of the mild pushing and positioning, they start to chat with each other and laugh, even offering cigarettes or something to eat. I mean, we are all in this together...right? But...still at the end, the women ahead of me pushed to get the next taxi..but the women who were right ahead of them didn't even notice. I guess they could understand. We were all on an overnight train and had been waiting for so long...so as the cab pulled up and the women in front of me hesitated and walked slowly, I thought about jumping ahead of them and grabbing the next cab..and then turning around to smile.

Great Wall Marathon

Proud to say that I completed the Great Wall Marathon a couple of weeks ago. It was a fantastic setting - an isolated, well preserved and restored section of the wall about three hours outside of Beijing.

This was my sixth marathon to date and I used this event to help keep me in shape during our stay here in Xian. What runner could pass up the chance to run a marathon on the Great Wall? Despite the obviousness of this course's difficulty, I completely underestimated the severity of the challenge. It was not really a traditional marathon, more of an endurance test. It began with about a half mile of flat terrain before you started a couple of miles up a winding hill to to the wall. Once on the wall you go up and down the thousand year old steps for about a mile an a half across this rugged mountainous area.


After a careful and slow descent down a very steep, rugged path the course is flat for a while before you begin an series of ups and downs across meandering hills, through three small villages, along a worn goat trail - all the while being encouraged along by very friendly townspeople. The combination of kids and older folks was amazing and gave you quite a boost.


However at mile 22, just about the point at which you hit the dreaded runners wall, you return to the Great Wall for a repeat performance. Only this time you have to go up the steep staircase (1000 plus steps, easy) to get to the wall and then face its unique challenges. I was monkey crawling at this point. The payoff is the descent down the back side of the course, by that point a very welcome site.



I finished in 5 1/2 hours and was very, very happy to have completed. Surprisingly, I had perhaps my fastest recovery to date - and did quite a bit of really nice site seeing over the next several days. The only thing I couldn't face were stairs...

Chai

Probably one of the most important characters in modern Chinese is "chai" meaning to pull down, dismantle. Ever since the horrific Sichuan earthquakes, Chinese television has been flooded with images of damaged buildings in various stages of being further dismantled. However, this nature caused destruction pales in comparison with the chai that goes on in the name of urban revitalization.

Chinese cities can accurately be described the world's biggest construction sites. Beyond the cranes, the dust, and the lattice work of scaffolding that dot the urban landscape, the image that I identify most with this construction boom is this chai character. It appears overnight, painted on the face of buildings to mark an area for demolition - once Chai appears the normal life of the area changes and all energies are focused on relocation, salvage and demolition. With a major new redevelopment project underway in our comfy apartment in Xian, we've been given a front row to this hallmark of China's rise.



The day of the Sichuan earthquake was also the day that demolition began on a 6 - 8 block area directly behind our apartment. Chai characters appeared all over the district along with legions of black garbed police moving into the neighborhood telling the residents that it was time to go. They had been given much advance notice about general development plans (a nice, modern mixed use residential area desperately needed to address the adjacent University's housing shortage), but as these things go, it is always a difficult realization for residents to make. There was a weird sense of disbelief - the earth was literally shaking beneath their feet as the inevitable order finally occurred and chai appeared. Despite the fear of quakes, people rushed to get things out of their dilapidated buildings as the metal recyclers and other scavengers moved in and started carting away anything of value.



Within a week the demolition began - heavy machinery complemented by hands on wrecking crews wielding sledge hammers. While it has been fascinating to watch the deconstruction of a whole community happen from our back window, the constant rat-a-tat-tat of heavy machinery chipping away at brick and concrete and the resulting dust clouds have tested our patience.

So while we watch the images of widespread natural destruction and human tragedy on the nightly news, we spend part of our days watching the much more focused destruction of our neighborhood. By demolishing at least a hundred medium to large scale buildings, we now enjoy new vistas - a fresh field of construction cranes working on another residential tower rises from the edge of the rubble. We now have three such developments, with a total of seven such multi-storied buildings, rising within view of our front and back windows. Amazing.

And it all starts with chai.

Thinking about our trip to Chengdu

It is hard for us to think about our trip to Chengdu.

We had such a magical time there but when I go to bed at night, I keep thinking about the kind monks who took us in at the monastery at the top of the mountain. The monastery was/is right between the epicenter of the earthquake and Chengdu.... We cannot imagine that the monastery made it but we have yet to hear anything.

It will take weeks if not longer for people to make the four hour trek up the mountain. I know that I would never return now...

The monks were young and old and they celebrated Hana's 11th birthday with us. We were the only people staying there and it was such an incredible experience.

A couple of seconds can change everything....

The girls are back to school. Parents still linger in front wondering if they are doing the right thing. What if another aftershock hits and it is closer to Xi'an. We've had over 160 aftershocks that register more than 4. We haven't felt them but wonder when this will all be over.

The governments now worries and admits that a harder phase awaits the country: rebuilding and developing the region. Within a week, they expect to have temporary housing for between 50,000-100,000 people. Given that 5 million are homeless, this is certainly not enough but it is a start. Factories and people are working round the clock (not that new or surprising for China) and people/students are descending on the area to volunteer and help out. They are looking for foster parents to take care of the thousands of children who are stranded and possibly orphaned by the experience.

We are looking forward to less eventful weeks in China.